The role of the dorsal CA1 and ventral CA1 in memory for the temporal order of a sequence of odors

Memory for the temporal order of a sequence of odors was assessed in male rats. A sequence of five odors mixed in sand was presented in digging cups one at a time to each rat in a sequence that varied on each trial. A reward was buried in each cup. Following the fifth odor, two of the previous five odors were presented simultaneously and the rat needed to choose the odor that occurred earliest in the sequence to receive a reward. Temporal separations of 1, 2, or 3 were used which represented the number of odors that occurred between the two odors in the sequence. Once pre-operative criterion was reached, rats received a control, dorsal CA1 (dCA1), or ventral CA1 (vCA1) lesion and were retested on the task. On post-operative trials, only the vCA1 group was impaired relative to both control and dCA1 groups. All groups of rats could discriminate between the odors. The data suggest that the vCA1, but not dorsal CA1, is involved in separating sensory events (odors) in time so that one odor can be remembered separate from another odor.     

Storage and non-storage components of working memory predicting reasoning: A simultaneous examination of a wide range of ability factors

The current study examined basic cognitive abilities that are related to or included in the concept of working memory (WM): different WM components, three executive functions, simple short-term storage (STM), and sustained attention. Tasks were selected from well-established models and balanced in terms of content. The predictive power of storage and non-storage components of WM was examined. The same analyses were conducted with mental speed as an additional predictor of reasoning. Finally, we investigated whether the identified predictors of reasoning remain relevant when a general factor is considered in the analysis. The analyses revealed that short-term memory accounted for the relationship between complex span measures of WM and reasoning but not for the relationship between coordination and reasoning. These findings remained stable in the context of a mental speed and a general factor. The mental speed factor did not add an incremental contribution to the prediction of reasoning above and beyond short-term memory and coordination. The general factor was mainly built by mental speed tasks and acted as an additional predictor of reasoning besides STM and coordination. Thus, we concluded that reasoning ability can be explained by coordination, STM, and mental speed.     

Speech‐perception‐in‐noise deficits in dyslexia

Speech perception deficits in developmental dyslexia were investigated in quiet and various noise conditions. Dyslexics exhibited clear speech perception deficits in noise but not in silence. Place‐of‐articulation was more affected than voicing or manner‐of‐articulation. Speech‐perception‐in‐noise deficits persisted when performance of dyslexics was compared to that of much younger children matched on reading age, underscoring the fundamental nature of speech‐perception‐in‐noise deficits. The deficits were not due to poor spectral or temporal resolution because dyslexics exhibited normal ‘masking release’ effects (i.e. better performance in fluctuating than in stationary noise). Moreover, speech‐perception‐in‐noise predicted significant unique variance in reading even after controlling for low‐level auditory, attentional, speech output, short‐term memory and phonological awareness processes. Finally, the presence of external noise did not seem to be a necessary condition for speech perception deficits to occur because similar deficits were obtained when speech was degraded by eliminating temporal fine‐structure cues without using external noise. In conclusion, the core deficit of dyslexics seems to be a lack of speech robustness in the presence of external or internal noise.     

Latent state–trait theory: An application in sport psychology

ObjectiveQuestionnaires are often applied in sports psychology to measure a person's trait or state. However, the extent to which the questionnaire captures differences because of trait or state influences is often unclear. The latent state–trait (LST) theory offers the opportunity to separate both variance sources. This separation allows estimating specific reliability coefficients.DesignThe present paper gives a theoretical introduction to LST and its basic ideas. Using a real data set with N = 156 athletes we exemplify the steps necessary to derive the LST coefficients. All athletes filled out a comprehensive inventory assessing competitive anxiety on two occasions.MethodThe data are analysed with structural equation models based on LST principles.ResultsThe results confirm the questionnaire's trait saturation.ConclusionFinally, results are discussed in light of practical and theoretical implications.     

Self‐ambivalence and reactions to success versus failure

People differ in the extent to which their self‐evaluations fluctuate in response to positive and negative events. This research tests whether self‐ambivalence predicts this self‐evaluative reactivity. Participants first completed measures of self‐ambivalence and baseline self‐esteem. Next, they were induced a success or failure experience in a cognitive task and finally rated their cognitive self‐evaluations (task‐specific ability, state self‐esteem) and affective reactions (self‐feelings, mood). Self‐ambivalence was associated with stronger effects of the success/failure manipulation on cognitive self‐evaluations but not on affective reactions, with baseline self‐esteem controlled. Possible underlying mechanisms are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How predictable is spelling? Developing and testing metrics of phoneme-grapheme contingency

Prior research has purported to show that words with infrequent phoneme-grapheme correspondences are more difficult to spell than words with frequent phoneme-grapheme correspondences. Defining exactly what a phoneme-grapheme relationship is, however, is not necessarily straightforward. There are a number of different assumptions that can be made. In this study, we developed four metrics of sound-spelling contingency based on all monosyllabic English words, including those with complex morphology. These metrics differed in the extent to which they included assumptions about spelling. The psychological reality of these different metrics was evaluated against data from a large-scale study of skilled adult spelling and a nonword spelling experiment. The results suggest that when spelling, people are sensitive to positional information, morphological status, vowel type, and a number of more idiosyncratic constraints.     

Cognitive appraisal of daily hassles in college students showing Type A or Type B behavior patterns

To test the hypothesized role of cognitive appraisal in Lazarus' model of life stress, 312 male and female undergraduate students completed the Hassles Scale and the Jenkins Activity Survey, Form C. Based upon their scores on the Type A scale of the Jenkins Activity Survey, subjects showing Type A behavior pattern differed significantly from subjects showing Type B behavior pattern on both reported frequencies of hassles (higher for Type A scoring subjects) and hassles content pattern. This is interpreted primarily as supportive of the cognitive appraisal variable in Lazarus' life stress model.     

Distinctive self and occupational member concepts in different occupational preference groups

This investigation attempted to test and extend selected aspects of Super's self-concept theory of career development. Four hundred twenty-eight male college student subjects, representing 39 college majors, selected their most-preferred occupational interest areas from a list of 14 factorially separable areas. The students described both themselves and their most-preferred occupational member concepts with Adjective Check List items. Individuals with demonstrably different self-concepts and occupational preferences displayed differences in the concepts that they held of members of their preferred occupational areas. Relatively distinct dimensions of similarity of self and occupational member concepts among students who preferred the same occupational area were also found.     

The DRC model of visual word recognition and reading aloud: An extension to German

The dual-route cascaded (DRC) model of word recognition and reading aloud was implemented in German. In this paper, we describe crosslinguistic differences and similarities between the German and the English DRC. The German DRC was evaluated with respect to its ability to correctly pronounce all German monosyllabic words and to simulate the loan word (regularity) effect. Furthermore, we obtained DRC predictions concerning a number of benchmark effects previously investigated in English, namely effects of word frequency, word length, and neighbourhood size.     

Visual phonology: The effects of orthographic consistency on different auditory word recognition tasks

In this study, we investigated orthographic influences on spoken word recognition. The degree of spelling inconsistency was manipulated while rime phonology was held constant. Inconsistent words with subdominant spellings were processed more slowly than inconsistent words with dominant spellings. This graded consistency effect was obtained in three experiments. However, the effect was strongest in lexical decision, intermediate in rime detection, and weakest in auditory naming. We conclude that (1) orthographic consistency effects are not artifacts of phonological, phonetic, or phonotactic properties of the stimulus material; (2) orthographic effects can be found even when the error rate is extremely low, which rules out the possibility that they result from strategies used to reduce task difficulty; and (3) orthographic effects are not restricted to lexical decision. However, they are stronger in lexical decision than in other tasks. Overall, the study shows that learning about orthography alters the way we process spoken language.